“metal structure” and “follows…space of facade” are pretty vague and general specifications. Is that actually how the exercise was specified? Maybe that’s your real problem.
I suggest that after you better (fully) define your design is the time to start asking for Rhino advice (if you still need it).
The area in red is where I need to create a metal cladding/covering that follows the curved shape of the building. My reference for this item is the Generali Tower, and I believe this new image explains it better.
1° - Yes (from top to bottom of the “notch” in your building)
2° - Yes (The floors are the same shape, only rotated)
3° - Since I’m new to using Rhino, I’m a bit lost on what kind of object to use for this**.**
4° - I tried creating lines to generate a shape using the Loft command, but it didn’t turn out as expected. I watched tutorials on YouTube, but nothing that effectively helped me.
The first is the associative command line which offers a dropdown list of commands that bear some resemblance to the characters that you type in the command line. This is the default and has the advantage of access to literally all the Rhino commands but its limited by your ability to chose the right combo of characters to produce the name of the command you might be interested in. You are probably already familiar with this.
The second is Rhino’s interactive help command. It needs to be turned on by clicking the question mark icon on the right edge of the properties panel. This opens a help topic for whatever command you have selected.
For a newer user (and even experienced users) the menu system is also a big help for exploration. Used with the interactive help it allows quick examination of commands and review of their help. Find a likely looking command from the command line dropdown or the menu, type it in or select it and read what the help has to say about it. You may have already discovered this feature, but if not I suggest you get intimately familiar with it. It will help you a lot.
As to the object selection, start with the very top menu. As you scan across it shows each of the major categories of Rhino objects: Line (with point stuck in at the top of the first submenu), Surface, Solid. Each has a submenu tree with various commands and options available. If you have gotten to the point where you are familiar with these it should be pretty obvious which would be your choice but if you are still at the point where you aren’t sure of what is available in Rhino it will take some exploration. (Probably not a point, line, or solid.) So what kind of surface? When you work with Rhino for a while you will realize that ultimately there is only one kind of surface but it can have many variations and characteristics. It can also be built in a variety of ways from a simple rectangular plane to a lot of interesting shapes. You tried to use loft but it didn’t give you what you need. I suggest you look into 1 or 2 rail sweep. I assume you have defined what a cross section of your surface needs to look like. You just need to have a rail or two to sweep along. For openers, turn on edit points for all of your floors (maybe at first just use 4 or 5 floors) and find an edit point that will be shared with a floor and your surface cross section. Turn on OSnap and set it to “point”. Select line→multiple segments (or whatever its called on the submenu - I’m not looking at Rhino right now). Start at one end of your floor stack and click along through corresponding edit points on the rest of the floors until you get to the other end of the stack. Now you should have a rail for the 1 rail sweep. Follow the help for that command and see where it takes you.
Thank you very much for the tips, especially the tip about the interactive help—it really helps me understand the commands.
I was able to create the structure using the 2 Rail Sweep, and it worked with great ease!
Please see the attached screenshot with the final modeling. I adjusted the shape of the building (it will likely undergo more updates) and created the structure exactly as I imagined.
I really appreciate the help and how great it is to be able to put my ideas into practice. Once again, thank you so much for the tips!
I’m pleased that I could get you started on figuring it out.
Of course, if you followed the procedure I suggested for creating the rails you ended up with straight segments between floors with kinks in your surfaces. In a practical sense that’s probably appropriate for your situation. In other cases you might want an actual smooth continuous curve and Rhino is fully capable of that as well with its ability to create very accurate objects. All it would require is to preselect all the common points on each floor and create a curve by interpolating points. For the best accuracy in your case consisting of uniform floor sections with just a uniform twist between them the curve should be created as a helix using the command of that name. It could also be used with a uniform taper between the floors. With modern fabrication and assembly methods it is probably perfectly feasible to strive for perfection.
Now that you know about the interactive help I think you will improve your rate of learning by orders of magnitude from tedious to enjoyable.
BTW: That interactive help feature was developed and implemented by Margaret Becker (now retired) decades ago following a suggestion I made on the predecessor of this forum. As far as I know Rhino was among the first, if not the first, to have anything like it. I think it is a major factor in Rhino’s (relatively) easy learning curve.
I wish you continued success in your development as (I presume) an architect.
